Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-12-02
The Settlers Deprived of Their Little
All to Satiate Monopoly's Greed.
Republicans Gave Hundreds of Thou
sands of Acres TO Corporations.
Honest Democrats Call Timely Halt
to the SQuandering Of Public Lands.
LAMAR'S FORTHCOMING REPORT

forthcoming annual report Is the part
which relates to adjustments of railroad
land grants. 1t reads as follows
shortly after my appointment, and as
became somewhat familiar with the
public lands system, its organization and
the workings thereof l became more and
more impressed with the fact that the
public domain was being diverted from
Its legitimate purpose and converted to
objects, the inevitable effect of which
were repugnant to the entire theory on
which the land system was based.
Apart from the methods OF illegal ap-
preparation of the public domain effect
ed through the two provision. of the sew
eral laws for acquiring title thereto, l be-
came convinced tLat the administration
of congressional grants TO wagon and
railroads had given rise to enormous
abuses. Congress had not only made
grants which in some instances exceeded
in extent the area of half a dozen of the
LARGEST IND MOST PoPULoUs STATES OF
THE UNION,
but IN addition provided that any losses
of lands within the granted limits should
be satisfied by selections of lands within
the other and adjoiAing limits, thus
nearly doubling the area of the original
grants. Under these acts the land de-
partment had Withdrawn from public ap-
preparation not only ths granted limits,
as required by law, but also the lands
within the indemnity limits, at the
request of the grantee COM
panies. Thus enormous quantities
of public lands were neld in reservation
to await the convenience of the respective
corporations in the construction of their
roads, selections of its lands, and the un-
certain adjustment of the grants by the
department. 1 do not for moment mean
to question the wisdom of aiding in the
construction of railroads. That pol
icy was at the time a wise one
but in the light of experience
it may be well asked whether it would not
have been wiser to have aided these great
enterprises otherwise than by grants of
the public domain. Though much good
has been wrought, certain it is that the
legislation by which these vast territories
passed under the dominion of the rail
road companies gave
AN INOURABLE WOUND TO THE HOMESTEAD
SCHEME,
before that scheme had fair opportun-
ity for displaying it's benefcent effects.
This land grant legislation was certainly
not in harmony with the theory of the
distribution of the public domain among
the people and gave up to capitalists as a
basis for traffic and speculation and
gigantic financial schemes what was by
the original policy of government de
signed to be homes for an industrious and
4 thrIft ftyT 10 fhn Oh
happiness and virtue anG patriotism.
these indemnity with
drawals were made for the interests of
the companies few, if any of them,
constructed their roads within the time
prescribed in the granting act, as an ex-
press condition on which the grant was
made.
Maps of the "probable," general" and
definite" routes of said road were flied
with rapidity in the department and with
drawals there under asked, and almost
invariably granted until the public lands
of the states and territories were grid
ironed over with railroad, granted and
indemnity limits; and in many instances,
limits of one road overlapping and con
ficting with other roads in a most be-
manner, so the settler seeking
a home could scarcely fad desirable To-
cation that vas not claimed by some one,
or perhaps two or three of the many
roads to which grants of land had been
made by congress.
NOR WAS THIS ALL.
Though the desired tract might not be
apparently covered by the railroad loca-
ton the settler would hardly select it be-
fore the agents of the corporations would
set up claim to it, or to the right to oc-
cupy and derude it under right of way
and construction privileges conferred by
the granting act. Thus the settler, ignor-
ant of his legal rights and with no one to
advise him with respect to either the
law or facts would for the sake
of peace and home readily
consent to purchase from the company.
In this way these corporations in ad-
dition to the lands granted to them have
sold and received the price of q
great deal of land to which they had
neither legal nor moral right, nor shad-
ow of either. The confusion, ha ardship
and impesitions practiced upon settlers
were greatly increased by the bold
schemes of the corporate agents where
were made of lands to which
the legal title of the companies
had not attached, and which afterwards
rem aimed in the same condition for
years through the failure of congress to
make the necessary appropriations for
When, however, through partial
surveys or adjustments of grants, lands
thus sold by the conn pany were found to
be outside CT the grants and determined
by the department to be public lands,
the purchaser from the company found
himself in the unfortunate predicamept
of having
LOST BOTH HIS LAND AND BIS MONEY.
Generally without the means to enter
into costly litigation with powerful ccr-
poration, the deprivation of his home,
the expenditure and waste of his years,
and his energy aud strength, in redeem
ing that home from its wild condition,
rendered his mere technical right of &C
ton against the company but little more
than mockerY.
1t mattered not what might be his
equities acquired by years of toll upon
what he believed to be part of the ma
tional domain. It was declared by the
highest judicial tribunal, as expounded
by the highest Law officers of executive,
that withdrawal once made by compe-
tent authority was legal and effective to
exclude all from intrusion within its
limits. One such case where hardship
and injustice were about to be inflicted
under the Law came under your observa-
ton. THE secretary here cites the noted
Miller csse.) After years of
waiting, congress had failed to EN- power
the department to make the necessary
surveys whereby some of the grants
might be adjusted, and no Immediate
prospect OF sach surveys was in sight.
But Law WAS PASSED
March 3, 1887, whereby the Secretary Of
the Interior was directed to immediate
ly adjust each of the railroad land grants
made by congress to aii in the construc
tioR of railroads" 1 entered upon q
most careful consideration of the whole
subject of the history and Law relating to
land grants, and concluded if the depart
mert was clothed with the authority TO
maks indemnity Withdrawals, as had been
done in so many instances, the exercise
of that authority was a matter entirely
within sound discretion and not q matter of
legal obligations in any respect; that the
same sound discretion which, in the in
terest of the companies. justified said